Remanufacturing is critical for Circular Economies, extending product life, creating jobs and revenue streams, and reducing waste, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. The main challenges that need to be addressed for successful remanufacturing in an industrial value chain or, more appropriately, value cycle are related to process, design, and business models. To meet these challenges, RESTORE will offer sustainable by-design remanufacturing processes, materials, and supporting tools for digitalizing the remanufacturing ecosystem or value chain. RESTORE aims to advance potential SoA cladding technologies for sustainable remanufacturing applications, including laser direct energy deposition and plasma transfer arc process. To increase the deposition rate for large-scale applications, we aim to develop a novel hybrid process combining laser and PTA processes. We aim to manufacture wire feedstock with recycled content and create a wire feeding system coupled with an auxiliary feeding system to transfer machining warf/unused powder directly into the melt pool; this will pave the way to zero waste and low-cost remanufacturing technology.

For digitalization, we are also aiming to develop a RESTORE platform, which will offer digital technologies and tools, which are digital technologies to increase process automation, recipe book, and simulation tools for product and process optimization, decision support framework, ecoDESIGN framework, blockchain-enabled digital product passport, digital marketplace, business model templates, and collaborative spaces that can help to facilitate and streamline the remanufacturing process, providing greater traceability, transparency, and efficiency. The digital collaborative space will bring all relevant actors of the remanufacturing domain under one umbrella to share data and leverage a decision support framework and supporting tool, guiding the optimal remanufacturing of industrial products and components.

Fraunhofer SCAI contributes to the RESTORE project by coordinating standardization activities for data formats, interfaces, and semantic information concepts. The VMAP standard will play an essential constructive role in exchanging and storing data from simulation, testing, and, in some cases, process monitoring. Fraunhofer SCAI can access the top-level ontology MpCCI Manufacturing Ontology to create the semantic information concepts.

Project Partners

• EWF
• aeribase
• DALFORSAN
• eit Manufacturing
• ENDURANCE
• Fraunhofer SCAI
• intellegens
• IREPA LASER
• MSC Scanning
• NAVTEK
• Parida Consulting
• Welding Alloys
  

Funded by the European Commission / Grant Agreement No: 101138842

Project duration: 01/2024 until 12/2027

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